Wednesday 19 May 2010

Cupcake Workshop

Well, I have attended my first ever Cupcake workshop held at Loafonline.

The workshop was run between Tom (Loaf) and Mary & Dali (Kiss Me Cupcakes).

The course was attended by six eager "cupcakers" and we were treated to a master class in making the best cake base (I still have to try them both, so cannot comment on which is the best) and then how to decorate them.

The six delegates were paired off into one of the three workstations set up in Tom's kitchen, where we tried to follow the demo we had seen. It was far better than watching the top chefs working on TV, as you got to see the whole process rather than the "here's one I prepared earlier" routine.

Once the cakes had cooled, Kiss Me Cupcakes went on to talk to us about icing and decorating the cakes we'd made.

It was at this point that I felt slightly at a disadvantage due to my lack of "artistic" talent (hence my desire to attend a workshop on cupcakes!).

We were shown how to flavour and colour the icing - I was very impressed with the colour paste, which seems so much easier and better than the usual food colouring I would have usually used. I was even more delighted to find out I'm not the only person who seem to have an ongoing war with Icing sugar and the mess it makes.

After a few practices on icing the cakes (or more than a few in my case - thanks Dali for your patience), this is what I came home with:







I am pleased how they turned out (especially if I compare them to any previous attempts!)

The only problem I had after the workshop was that a various stages during the night I kept dreaming of icing cupcakes (of course these came out perfect!) and wondering whether I could try and turn my Canadian Carrot Cake & Chocolate Guinness Cakes into cupcakes - perhaps I'll have to have a go.